The phenomenal growth of the Blockchain is strongly connected with cryptocurrencies and primarily with the Bitcoin launch in 2008. Though, the history of cryptocurrencies based on Blockchain technology is comparatively short, crypto industry offers the unprecedented opportunities for investing in assets, or tokens.

The evolution of the Blockchain technology has been unique: from scientific computations of programmers in 90s, a breakthrough at the turn of the 21st century, to today, when the Blockchain has become a backbone for the future information technologies.

Nowadays the major segment of the Blockchain market is presented by Financial and IT tools, which make up 9 out of 10 ICO projects. The minor segment introduces real economic projects, i.e. they create tangible and manufactured products, which are of value in both virtual and real world.

Apparently, the Blockchain will become the foundation of the future digital economy, which will inevitably cause the shift in the market: the Blockchain will enter the real sector as well.

The Russian Post can be considered as an excellent example of how to use the Blockchain in its operations. This is a real economy enterprise, very slow and conservative. However, it has been introducing the Blockchain in its tracking system. Another equally remarkable example is Farm “Kolionovo”, situated in Moscow region. It has transferred their operating activities in agricultural production to cryptocurrency payments.

Moreover, the Blockchain is not only and not so much only about money; it is the means of payment. Cryptocurrencies are just the most popular side of this technology. The other asset, which is much more interesting for business, is tokens or smart assets.

What is a token?
Tokenization as a new way of asset digitalizing can become a real breakthrough in many business sectors. The Blockchain implementation and business digitalization allow to make material assets more liquid and to shorten the time of business transactions.
Tokens are digital assets or independent objects of value within the Blockchain. A token can be bound to value and can have a holder.
Nowadays, the most famous and popular tokens are Ethereum tokens, primarily due to the low entry price and functionality of ERC-20 tokens. There are more than 5000 different tokens in use, based on Ethereum technology currently.

The assets tied to tokens can be both tangible and intangible. A tangible asset is any property, real estate, equipment, precious metals and currency. An intangible asset is cryptocurrencies, trademarks, copyright and other subjects of value which do not have material embodiment. Among the examples of digital assets, one can name any data, software, personal data and, above all, subjects of the crypto world.

There are several reasons why tokens have become the most sophisticated tool underlying a new digital economy. First of all, the main advantage of the tokens is their liquidity and speed of transactions. Tokens can digitalize practically any asset; transactions are a lot faster with tokens than with any other asset, especially with tangible assets or documents.

In the majority of cases it is much easier to make a deal in tokens than to invest directly into a tangible asset or into guarantees tied to an asset. Speeding-up and simplification of transactions are achieved by reducing legal formalities; at the same time a token asset itself may be divided between many purchasers without any damage.
Today, as in the past, the majority of transactions are carried out via complex centralized systems managed by the third party. Buying a car or a house, issuing a passport, investing in a bank account require numerous interconnected actions. All these transactions take a lot of time, as they have to involve parties which receive, check and pass documents. Complex centralized operations are the only way to consolidate actions of all interested parties, when no one can trust anyone. However, tokenization and transfer to smart contracts can solve this problem and significantly speed up any transactions.
Unlike the traditional transactions, tokens assume both transparency and anonymity, by registering all operation in distributed registry. The global trend of the last two decades is genuine concern about privacy and confidentiality, which is provided by the ubiquitous adoption of the Blockchain. Namely, the Blockchain allows to make deals with more anonymity and exclude fraudulent operations.
Tokens in crypto economy can be divided into 2 types: tokens not bound to any specific asset and tokenized or digitalized assets.
Unbound tokens can be used in some functions in the financial system DApp, a decentralized investment platform. They serve for management, clusterization and ensuring the work of other internal mechanisms of the system there. At the same time tokens are not bound to separate or much less tangible assets, and their value results from the network effects within the system.

Another example of an unbound token is a GNT-token, or Golem Network Token. It serves as an internal currency when purchasing computational power on the Golem platform. Likewise, unbound tokens are used by many other blockchain projects. However, bound to assets tokens are used more frequently.

In these systems there is a tangible asset bound to a token, or a digital crypto asset; a token value is tied to the value of these assets. Economy of the asset directly affects a token value, which makes it more attractive for pragmatic investors. Tokenization of business and market of sophisticated goods can significantly change the situation on the markets of sophisticated goods, from real estate to automobile and specialized vehicles.

Such a decision works well in industries with illiquid assets and significant documents workflow. Tokenization allows to split an asset between different investors without creating legal difficulties. However, universal tokenization requires the development of a special infrastructure, but not every industry is ready for this. One of the few industries which is technically prepared for universal tokenization is automobile business.

MUST and Tokens
Project MUST, for example, is going to tokenize the sector of commercial carriers, well known for project developers. The infrastructure has been developed for many years: vehicles can well be controlled remotely, from tracking location to the cost and profit of a carrier. All the system is absolutely transparent for an investor who financially contributes in a tokenized asset; which means that he is able to foresee asset’s yield.

It is an important thing for an investor to have an opportunity to monitor how the asset bought at his own expense is being used and how it makes profit. MUST developers have foreseen everything: technical condition, distance travelled and performance mode of a purchased automobile can be monitored. There are no additional efforts required from a user, i.e. a private carrier: telematics does everything and a carrier simply does their job. Transparency of assets allows to save the capital invested in tokens, and to foresee the future.

On the other hand, MUST will be useful for small road transport companies as a source of accessible financing, based on smart contracts. This is the mission of the project, which enters ICO in the first half of the current year.

Conclusion
What makes tokens and smart contract so promising is automation and people-free nature. Instead of verifying obligations, the contracts will be able to do everything by themselves. Unknown to each other parties can make transaction without looking back at building trust, as trust will be provided by the Blockchain technology.
The Blockchain technologies today resemble the Internet boom in the 90s. The same as it was 20 years ago, all market participants understand that the new technology has the future. On the other hand, there is no clear understanding of how it should look or work yet, which causes numerous experiments, speculations and failures. However, it is apparent that in the future, when digital assets will be easy to purchase and keep, we will witness an unprecedented shift in the global economy. The world will never be the same.